New ministry reaching Bangor’s homeless and most hopeless with the name of Jesus

There is power in the name of Jesus. The power to overcome fear. The power to break the chains of addiction. The power to change lives in an instant. The power to teach people love, when they have never experienced true love of their own.

With genuine faith in this life-changing power we have the mission of a new ministry in our area called City Reach Bangor. Pastor Bobby Bledsoe — a New Jersey native who moved to Maine to attend Faith School of Theology in Charleston, Maine — felt called to stay in this area and serve the ‘least of these’ in our city, and is doing so with this new ministry.

Officially, City Reach Bangor is a new Christian church plant. But they are not a church in the ‘traditional’ sense of the word. As part of the City Reach Network, their purpose in Bangor is to “reach people through services, small groups, ‘Hope Homes’, and community events.”

So in short, this church plant is not just about opening up another location for people to come attend a church service and sit and be fed the Word of God, but rather about getting out into the community and going and doing the “feeding” of others truly in need.

As referenced above, a key part of the City Reach Network is to establish what’s called a ‘Hope Home’ in the community where each new church is planted. While this name has caused some confusion with the well-known “Hope House” that’s been in Bangor for many years, and whose mission is to serve the same need — Bangor’s homeless population — it is not the same place.

Instead of me trying to describe with words what City Reach is doing here, take a look at some of the lives that have already been changed by this ministry in it’s short time in Bangor:

While this article focuses on this one new ministry that is serving the needs of Bangor’s most overlooked population, I do want to acknowledge organizations such as the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, Manna Ministries, and the previously mentioned Hope House that have been in the trenches of our city for years now. Furthermore, other Jesus-centered addiction recovery groups like Calvary Chapel’s Seven Oaks Training Center and Blessed Hope Women’s Program, as well as Celebrate Recovery Bangor at Columbia Street Church — and a host of others that I’m sure I’m leaving out — have also been doing ‘God’s work’ in our area for some time.

With City Reach Bangor and their newly established Hope Home, we can be thankful to now have even more foot soldiers joining the never ending battle to serve those in need. With one group you can’t reach everyone, but you can reach the one right in front of you. The more groups and ministries doing this work in our area, the better.

For more information on City Reach Bangor or the Hope Home, or if you know someone who may benefit from this ministry, please do not hesitate to contact Pastor Bobby and his staff at 207.745.2140.